Lieve Doucé

The Presence of a Pleasant Ambient Scent in a Fashion Store The Moderating Role of Shopping Motivation and Affect Intensity

Marketing managers are increasingly using olfactory marketing instruments in the retail environment. However, the question is whether scents in the store are desirable for all consumer types. Research on the moderating role of individual differences on the impact of scents in the marketplace is scarce. This article focuses on how ambient fragrances in the store can influence customers’ affective, evaluative, and approach reactions and considers the moderating role of shopping motivation and affect intensity. A field experiment reveals that a pleasant fragrance positively influences consumers’ affective reactions, evaluations, and intentions to revisit the store, especially when the consumers score high on affect intensity. Strategically manipulating the store environment via ambient scents is an inexpensive yet effective way to positively influence consumer behavior. Retailers can use ambient scents to heighten their differentiating ability; however, the decision to diffuse a scent should be based on the target audience.

The Effect of Crossmodal Congruency Between Ambient Scent and the Store Environment on Consumer Reactions: An Abstract

The most important dimensions of an ambient scent when selecting this scent to be diffused in the store environment are its pleasantness and its congruity with the object (e.g., product or store) under investigation (Douce et al. 2013). In this study we examine the importance of the congruency of the ambient scent with the crossmodal correspondences elicited by the store environment. A crossmodal correspondence refers to the tendency of one sensory modality to be matched with another sensory modality (Spence 2012). The presence of a sensory cue in the store environment (e.g., the colors used) might trigger an expectation with respect to, for instance, the tactile sense (e.g., expected temperature). We propose that if the ambient scent triggers the same expectations as the store environment then the ambient scent and the store environment are crossmodally congruent. Furthermore, we state that diffusing a crossmodally congruent ambient scent in the store environment will lead to more positive effects compared to the use of a crossmodally incongruent ambient scent.